Somewhere, not far from here, in a world not unlike where we live now, in a time not so long ago, there were places within places. These places were dark, secretive, intriguing, mystical, mysterious, unfathomable, adstruse, esoteric, enigmatic, and all other words of that description describing what I'm describing. These untraversed, provocative places within places both enthralled and struck fear into all the men of every land in every world in every galaxy ...

In the time before time, within the beyond beyond the beyond, between the spaces between spaces, in a place where it's so dark it makes dark things look not so dark, where happiness is no longer happiness and the happy people are sadder than sad things could ever be, a place where a young creature known only as an Adam is the only brave thing to walk the darker than dark streets and hunt for food that is scarce and...